Creation Reprise... Lesson 2

CREATION -- A REPRISE

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Doubtless you have heard or been told that the Creation account can t be true because there are two different versions given in Genesis. Well, let's find out for ourselves. Are there two accounts? And are they different? And, if so, Why?

In the first lesson in this series, you read and studied the creation account as recorded in Genesis Chapter 1. (If you didn't do that study, you really need to go back and do it before you do this one, because we are going to be comparing the two accounts.)

Assuming that you have read Genesis 1 and are familiar with those events, your assignment now, should you choose to accept it, is to read the account of Creation and the related events as recorded in Genesis 2:4-3:24. (This scripture passage is printed out for you below.) As you read, and, as you did in the first study, mark every occurrence of the word God by putting a blue circle around the word 'God' and the synonyms and pronouns used in place of the actual word, 'God.'* Then, when you have finished, we ll answer some questions. Ready to start?! Ok! Begin reading and circling the God words in the passage printed here for you.

*the synonyms (LORD) and pronouns (he, him, his, us, our, I, we, my)

pause while you do this assignment

Genesis 2:4 - 3:24 (NIV)

2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens :5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, :6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground -- :7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

2:8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden In the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. :9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground -- trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

2:10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. :11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. :12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) :13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. :14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of the Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. :16 And the LORD God commanded the man. You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; :17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.

2:18 The LORD God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

2:19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. :20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. :21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. :22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

2:23 The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.

2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh..

2:25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Genesis Chapter 3

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden ?

:2 The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees In the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.

:4 You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. :5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. :7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. :9 But the LORD God called to the man, Where are you?

:10 He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.

:11 And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?

:12 The man said, The woman you put here with me -- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.

:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, What is this you have done?

:14 The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

:15 So the LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. :15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.

:16 To the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

:17 To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You must not eat of it, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. :18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. :19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. :22 And the LORD God said, the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and talk also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. :23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. :24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Great, I see you have finished! Now, based on what you remember about the Creation account as recorded in Genesis Chapter 1 (in the previous lesson in this series) and based on what you have just read in Genesis Chapters 2 & 3 , IS there a difference in the two accounts?

Circle your answer: YES NO

You are correct! There IS a difference. But, what was different? And Why the difference? And what was the reason for the difference? To find the answer to these questions, let s do some thinking.

In the list below, put the word YES by the things that are the same or true in or concerning both accounts and NO by the things that were different or not true.

I will do the first three for you as an example.

YES...1 The Creator was God

NO....2. Specific days are mentioned in both accounts with same details repeated.

YES...3. Things are created but each account gives different details and emphasis.

.........4. Different details are emphasized in each account.

......... 5. Different emphasis in each account.

.........6. Different focus in each account.

.........7. Different order of creation (or the order does not seem to be the main emphasis in the second account. )

.........8. At the end of each account, everything was good and perfect.

.........9. At the end of each account, man is God s crowning apex of creation.

.........10. Everything that was created was created by God.

.........11. All creatures that were created were to be ruled over by man.

.........12. The purpose of relating the 2 accounts was to tell the same story in the same way for the same reason.

How did you do? Statements 2 and 12 were NO. Everything else was a YES

Obviously the two accounts are different in some ways and alike in others. So, based on what you have read and the insights that you have already discovered, briefly explain in your own words in the space below, what the main difference is between the two accounts.

__________________________________________________________________

Great, good thinking and reasoning. I assume that you observed that each account has a different emphasis, focus, goal or purpose. Therefore, each account would be expected to be similar yet different since they are emphasizing different aspects of God s creation and for different reasons.

Let's look at Genesis Chapter 1 again. (Reread that scripture which was printed out for you in Lesson 1, or use your Bible). What was being emphasized in Chapter 1 (Put a YES by the correct answers and NO by those that are not true.)

YES....1. The exact and precise step by step orderly sequence of creation.

............2. The fact that God was the Creator

............3. To explain how the heavens and earth were made in all their vast array.

............4. To show that everything that was created was created by God at His command, for His purposes and according to His specific plan.

............5. To show that God knew what He was doing and had a purpose for everything.

........... 6. To show that at the conclusion of creation, EVERYTHING was perfect and without defect, error, or sin.

............7. To show us that humans were made in the image of God & what this meant concerning God s intended plans for us.

............8. To show that man just happened by a series of accidents and chance encounters and events occurring over eons and eons of time.

............9. To show that man is no more important and has no greater purpose in life than plants, fishes, birds, animals or any living or created thing.

Finished? Great! And, I assume that your answered YES to all of the questions except numbers 8 and 9, which were, of course, NO answers.

Now, let s think about what we read in Chapters 2 and 3 concerning the Creation account. Is the actual account of creation in Chapters 2 & 3 as detailed as in Chapter 1?

Circle your answer: YES NO

You are correct. It is not as detailed. In fact, the few details concerning the actual events of Creation that are given in Chapter 2 are rather sketchy when compared to Genesis 1. But, other things are emphasized in detail in Chapters 2 and 3 that were not emphasized in Genesis 1. Isn t that interesting? Hmmmmmm.

In the space below, list at least 3 things that are emphasized in more detail in Chs. 2 & 3. Then list at least 3 things that are emphasized in less detail in Genesis 2 & 3 when compared with Ch. 1.

Things given MORE emphasis in Genesis 2 & 3

____________________________________________________

Things given LESS emphasis in Genesis 2 & 3

___________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

Correct, In Genesis Chapters 2 & 3, there is more emphasis on the specific details of the creation of Adam and Eve, on the details of the place where God intended for them to live (the Garden of Eden), more details concerning the land (rivers, gold, etc.), more details about what Adam and Eve were to eat and to do, and they were even specifically identified by name as Adam and Eve in this second account of creation.

But, there was less emphasis on the specific details concerning the individual events of creation: less detail concerning the sequence of the events; less detail concerning the time periods involved; no details relating that there was a 6 day period of creation; and less detail in that some of the objects of creation (stars, etc) were not mentioned in the second account, to mention a few of differences.

So, would you say that there seemed to be a different purpose for relating each version of the Creation events in these 2 different versions of the Account of Creation?

Circle your answer: YES NO

Now, to reinforce what you have so correctly observed, and in the same way as you did previously, read and respond to the questions below concerning the purpose of the Creation account and surrounding events as related in Genesis Chapters 2 & 3. As before, let me get you started by answering the first 2 questions for you.

NO.....1. The exact and precise step by step orderly sequence of creation.

YES...2. The fact that God was the Creator

...........3. To explain in detail how the heavens and earth were made in all their vast array.

...........4. To show that everything that was created was created by God for His purposes and according to His specific plan.

...........5. To show that God knew what He was doing and had a purpose for everything.

.......... 6. To show that at the conclusion of creation, EVERYTHING was perfect and without defect, error, sin or death. (That is why God was able to rest on the 7th day-- because nothing needed to be changed, corrected, revised or redone. Everything was perfect!)

..........7. To show us that humans were made in the image of God & what this meant concerning God s intended plans for us.

..........8. To show that man just happened by a series of accidents and chance encounters and events over eons and eons of time.

..........9. To show that man is no more important and has no greater purpose in life than plants, fishes, birds, animals or any other living or created thing.

.........10. To explain what happened to God s creation.

.........11. To show the HOW and WHY the PERFECT creation of God ceased to be perfect.

Yes, there does seem to be a difference in purpose. And, just to check your answers, though I know you got them correct, numbers 1,3,8, and 9 were NO. All the rest were YES.

Now, in your own words, briefly state the reason / purpose for the version of the Creation account in Chapter 1 and the reason or purpose in Chapter 2. In other words, how were they different? and why?

Purpose of Chapter 1 _______________________________________

Purpose of Chapter 2 _______________________________________

Why are these accounts different? What was God trying to emphasize in each?

Account 1 emphasis _______________________________________

Account 2 emphasis ________________________________________

Correct! You figured it out for yourself. There ARE differences in the Creation story account of Genesis Chapter 1 and that of the second account as given in Genesis 2 and 3, but there was and is a reason for these differences and the reason explains the apparent conflict . So, in reality there is NO conflict. The differences are intended to emphasize different aspects of creation and to explain different things.

In Genesis Chapter 1, the emphasis is on the specific acts and details of Creation itself and the order in which the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. In Genesis Chapters 2 & 3, the emphasis is on the crowning apex of God s creation -- man-- and events relating to man and how man s actions marred and brought about the changes from the original perfect and pristine creation of God. The second account explains to us the WHY of sin and death and sickness and thorns and evil and the pain of work and etc. etc. etc. So, the emphasis in Chapter 2 & 3, then, is not the same as it was in Chapter 1. Both accounts are necessary and essential but both are intended to relate a different part of the total story.

In Musical or Literary terminology, this retelling of the same event from two different perspectives is referred to as a REPRISE. What is a reprise, you ask? Well, according to Webster s New Collegiate Dictionary (the 1977 version),

a REPRISE... is a recurrence, a renewal, a resumption of an action,

... a musical repetition... the repetition of the exposition preceding the development....

a recapitulation, repeat performance....

This then is what is occurring in Genesis 2:3 - 3:24. In Genesis Chapter 1, the first account of Creation, we are given the orderly, planned, sequential steps of creation as they were designed and directed and executed by the Creator-God. The EMPHASIS in Chapter 1, then, was on the specific acts and details of creation itself.

In Genesis Chapter 2:4-3:24, Creation is described and explained from the perspective of what happened to God s creation. The EMPHASIS in the second creation account, then, is different, just as it is in a REPRISE.

In a reprise in music or literature, you have a main underlying theme but that theme is added to, built upon and expanded upon by adding and deleting specific details, information, and information. Similarly, this is what was done in the retelling of the Creation account in Genesis Chapters 2 & 3. Genesis 1 gave us the main theme, the basic essential facts, the outline and the general information of creation. In the Second account of creation, the sequential and specific details of creation are not the emphasis, but rather other details and events are the main intent of the account.

Specifically, in Genesis Chapter 1, we are told the "What happened" , the " When" , the " how it was done", the "sequential order" of how the events occurred, and the " by Whom" (the name of the Creator).

As a matter of fact, and by way of review, since these things were related to us, how about summarizing this now in your own words in the spaces provided below. Refer to Genesis chapter 1 if you need to and fill in the specific details of first Creation account.

The First Creation Account

What Happened?(see Gen 1:1 & 2:1)________________________

When (how long did it take?) (Gen 2:1-2) __________________days.

What was the order of events? Specifically, what was created on ...

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Who did the creating? (Gen 1:1 & 2:2)_______________________

How did the creation occur? (Gen. 1:3,5,9,14,20,24...)___________

Yes, you are correct! The First Creation account tells us what happened: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth .... the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array .... in 6 days. The LORD God did the creating by just speaking the creation into existence. (Remember what you read in Gen. 1:3,5,9,14,20, 24.) And the things that God created were light on day 1; an expanse (sky) on day 2; dry land and vegetation on day 3; lights on day 4; all water creatures and everything that flies on day 5; land creatures and man on day 6. And God rested on day 7.

So the emphasis in the first Creation account was on the order in which the heavens and earth were completed in all their vast array whereas in the second account, the emphasis shifts to an in-depth look at the crowning apex point of creation -- man -- and details concerning that event and the subsequent events which followed. The purpose, then of the Reprise Account of Creation is NOT to step by step repeat the basic fundamental facts about creation. Instead, the purpose is to show how God s perfect creation was marred by man s rebellion and sin.

Why do we need this Reprise account of creation? We need it to explain what man s rebellion did to God s creation, to mankind in general, and to us (you and me) in particular. This second (reprise) account is an essential, basic, key and fundamental passage in scripture. It is foundational. It truly EXPLAINS the WHY of what is wrong with the world today! It explains why bad things happen. It explains why we have death, cancer, earthquakes, disasters, terrorists, and all the rest of the evils and horrors in the world today. This Reprise account of Creation explains how evil got here, what it does, and, more importantly, that there is a remedy for evil and a way back to the original perfect state of the world.

In fact, the truths that are taught in this second account of creation are sooooo very important, that we are going to go into them in more detail in the next lesson in this series.

In Lesson 3, we are going to discover that this kind, loving, merciful God Who created everything did NOT create the world and universe and everything in it to have sin, earthquakes, floods, disasters, etc. NO, that was NOT God s intention or desire for His creation then or today. But, even though God saw and allowed His creation to become marred by sin, yet He provided a way for everything to one day be returned to His original purpose and plan. God has provided a way whereby the sin and death and pain and sorrow that entered the world because of man s disobedience will one day be removed and His creation restored to His original purpose and intent. That day has not yet come, as you can tell by looking at your life and the lives of the world around you. But, it is coming and God has provided a way so we can be a part of it.

Obviously, then, with such a different emphasis for each account, the 2 accounts of Creation will NOT be the same. They can t be! One account (the First one) gives the details of the Creation of a perfect world. The Second account gives the details of how the Perfect world was made imperfect! Keep that in mind as you read these 2 accounts of creation and as you do Lesson 3, the next lesson in this series. You will then see that the seeming differences are NOT really differences at all. They are simply differences in information, focus, and emphasis because they are intended to reveal different insights, facts, truths, and understandings.

So, the next time someone tells you that the creation story can t be true because the 2 accounts are different, you can loving and patiently explain this to them.

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